MORE ON: Meg Whitman

Wealthy Californians are keeping the money flowing to super political action committees, even as some state lawmakers want to turn off the faucet. Super PACs on the left and right drew hefty contributions last month from the rich and famous – such as controversial comedian Bill Maher and... + read more

In losing the 2010 governor’s race, Republican Meg Whitman set a record for political spending in a California election: Her campaign cost $178.5 million. But Whitman’s losing campaign against Democrat Jerry Brown appears somewhat more economical in terms of dollars spent per vote... + read more

UPDATE, Feb. 20, 2012: In a filing five days after this report was posted, Romney's Restore Our Future PAC reported a $100,000 donation from Whitman. Back in the 1980s at Boston’s Bain & Co. business consulting firm, partner Mitt Romney mentored a promising young executive named... + read more

Politicos have been abuzz about insider trading this week, after a "60 Minutes" piece released Sunday detailed questionable stock-trading rules that do not prohibit members of Congress from trading on information they hear during the course of their lawmaking. But the issue should... + read more

The candidate was poised, motivated and smart as a whip. She had an impressive resume, influential supporters and unlimited resources. In the end, none of it mattered. Meg Whitman’s Republican campaign for governor stalled over such issues as her alleged involvement in insider Wall... + read more

By the end of last weekend's panel on the 2010 election, Duf Sundheim, the former chairman of the California Republican Party, came to a stark conclusion: "The Republican brand in this state is death." Even if Republicans were enjoying successes throughout the country in November... + read more

Never let it be said that the $160-plus million that Meg Whitman spent on her record-shattering gubernatorial campaign didn't bear at least some returns: If the good folks at Google are to be believed, that money elevated her to a level of political celebrity that even national GOP headline-... + read more

You've heard this before, but just in case the point didn't register, the National Institute for Money in State Politics last week decided to beat you over the head with it one more time: Self-funded political candidates almost always lose. Despite spending more than a quarter-billion... + read more

Meg Whitman didn’t just outspend Jerry Brown in her losing campaign for governor. The billionaire Republican outspent the entire field of 15 other candidates for statewide office combined, Democrats as well as Republicans. The secretary of state’s totals don’t cover... + read more

Statewide candidates and ballot measures who ended up on the wrong side of Tuesday's election spent nearly a quarter billion dollars on their failed election bids, including at least $15 million on campaign consultants and more than $120 million on ad spending, state and federal campaign... + read more

Not all of the victors and the vanquished from California’s state election Tuesday were apparent from scanning the returns. Here are California Watch’s nominees for some other election winners (W) and losers (L): “Queen Meg” and the unions (W): The California Nurses... + read more

Kamala Harris slight lead for attorney general Democrat Kamala Harris, the district attorney of San Francisco, has pulled ahead of Republican Steve Cooley in the race for California attorney general. Harris was receiving 46.1 percent of the vote compared to Cooley, the Los Angeles... + read more

For the first time in a generation, California voters elected a governor without getting a peek at the candidates’ tax returns. By law, 1040s are confidential. But in the interest of transparency and full disclosure, candidates for governor have provided news reporters access to several... + read more

As California's gubernatorial campaign comes to an end, the issues raised by Meg Whitman's hiring, and then firing, of an unauthorized worker as her housekeeper have yet to be resolved. The controversy was arguably the game changing event of the campaign as polls indicate that it... + read more